You can't See Me.

[Guest ManKinnd]

I hate this thread.

[Cherry Blossom Viscount 0]

The rap/hip-hop culture is obviously traditionally dominated by black people, Eminem being the only notable exception, and has a language vastly different to "standard" English, whether American or British. So if you don't understand the language, you're white.

 

I hope that makes some kind of sense.

It's not a "language," it's a bastardization of American English.

This from someone who is speaking a "bastardization" of the Queens English, which is in turn a bastardization of Anglo-Saxon "English."

[Slayer 0]

DING DONGS??! You think a man of my stature and refinement would eat a DING DONG? HA! Don't make me laff.

 

The Rolls Royce of Snackcakes

TripleR even likes his food white

[Toxxic 0]

White people aren't cool. White Men Can't Jump. I personally have formulated a theory based on my own observations that a person of any other racial background can kick the crap out of an equal-sized white person in a fight. Basically, since white people aren't cool, anyone who isn't cool is white.

 

Then again, I think this rationalisation only works if the person is uncool in relation to a culture dominated by a different racial group. The rap/hip-hop culture is obviously traditionally dominated by black people, Eminem being the only notable exception, and has a language vastly different to "standard" English, whether American or British. So if you don't understand the language, you're white.

 

I hope that makes some kind of sense.

I was all set to laugh at this and applaud you for your comedic talents until I realized you weren't really joking, were you.

No, it was ironic. Honest. I sometimes forget that you can't all see my wry, all-knowing smile as I type away.

 

Damn, I did it again.

[AndrewTS 0]

The rap/hip-hop culture is obviously traditionally dominated by black people, Eminem being the only notable exception, and has a language vastly different to "standard" English, whether American or British. So if you don't understand the language, you're white.

 

I hope that makes some kind of sense.

It's not a "language," it's a bastardization of American English.

This from someone who is speaking a "bastardization" of the Queens English, which is in turn a bastardization of Anglo-Saxon "English."

That's a matter of the natural evolvement of a language being molded into a new form through the assimilation of a number of new ethnic groups.

 

We're talking about a matter of a minority perpetuating stereotypes while simultaneously being dragged down to subliteracy.

 

If you want to talk to your friends in some butchered "dialect" that's your constitutional right, however I don't believe we should expected to learn it as well.

 

I know some black folks that like to read actual literature, although they speak some of that colored-folk-slang as well. That's good and fine.

 

However, I also know some that seem to have derived their entire vocabulary from rather tasteless rap music. Then they bitch about the white man because THEY dropped out of school, can barely read, and have trouble with any big words.

 

It's not a language per se or a bastardization, it's a dialect of English. A very linguistically rich dialect of English, in fact. There's a lot of interesting derivation going on in African American Vernacular.

 

Oh yeah. For example, much like Ekimos do for snow, they have about a hundred words for marijuana.

[Guest Anglesault]

Yep, that won't go over well.

 

There's a lot of interesting derivation going on in African American Vernacular.

 

Please elaborate.

[LaParkaMarka 0]

Yep, that won't go over well.

 

There's a lot of interesting derivation going on in African American Vernacular.

 

Please elaborate.

The main thing I was thinking of was how AAVE has a habitual form of the verb "be", which is quite interesting in a linguistic sense since no other dialects of English use it. There's quite a bit more than that, though. Click here for a list of some major differences between Standard American English and AAVE, including some stuff about habitual be. It might be hard to understand if you've never studied linguistics, but you can see the complex verb forms in AAVE, especially in something like "been".

 

Ok, here is something a little easier to read, that has a bunch of the phonological and grammatical derivations going on in AAVE, though I'm not too sure about this research; the guy seems to only have studied AAVE as depicted on the Ricki Lake show. Though I suppose that's as good a source as any.

 

A more thorough listing of some more reputable resources for AAVE is available here. That page also has some good info on AAVE. If you are serious about learning more about linguistics or the features of AAVE, take a sociolinguistics course at your local university or college. If you have access to any library databases, check out the Linguistics and Language Behavior Abstracts. If you're confused by all this, PM me and I'll try to explain in some more detail.

[RavishingRickRudo 0]

I'm just waiting for the time where we all speak in acronyms and shortform. Conversations that normally take 5 minutes will be done in 1.

 

Or should I say.

 

"Convos dat norm tay Fy min be done' 1."

 

... basically, a form of Bayou/Caijun speak.

[Guest Anglesault]

The "habitual Be" and "Absence of third person singular 's'" are the equivalant of nails on a chalk board to me, actually.

 

But hell, I guess by "SAE" would seem borderline illterate to a Brit, so really, as long as someone doesn't speak to me personally like that, there's no big deal.

[Toxxic 0]

But hell, I guess by "SAE" would seem borderline illterateto a Brit, so really, as long as someone doesn't speak to me personally like that, there's no big deal.

That should be "illiterate".

 

 

I'm sorry, I couldn't resist that one...

[AndrewTS 0]

I thought we were still talking about vocabulary and phrases, not grammar.

 

Spanish speakers and Francophones, though: what the hell is the deal with assigning genders to inanimate objects?!

[Toxxic 0]

I still want someone to tell me why the word "skirt" is masculine in German.

[LaParkaMarka 0]

If you look at the etymology of "skirt" in English, it's actually derived from Old Norse skyrta, meaning "shirt, kirtle". If German followed a similar borrowing, then the original meaning was actually shirt, not skirt. Assuming women back then wore dresses instead of shirts, it makes sense to assume that "shirt" and thus skirt would be masculine.

[KTID 0]

This thread is actually unreal

[Toxxic 0]

Thank you, LaParkaMarka. Whether this thread is unreal or not, you have just solved a problem that has been annoying me on and off since high school.

[Guest Anglesault]

But hell, I guess by "SAE" would seem borderline illterateto a Brit, so really, as long as someone doesn't speak to me personally like that, there's no big deal.

That should be "illiterate".

 

 

I'm sorry, I couldn't resist that one...

Damnit, "Illterateo" is... is... well, it's something!